Mind Reading and Thought Identification

Clipped from: Scientists move a step closer to mind-reading | Science | guardian.co.uk

Scientists move a step closer to mind-reading

Scientists have developed a method for reading a person's mind using brain scans.

Once it has been trained on an individual subject's thoughts, the computer model can analyse new brain scan images and work out which noun a person is thinking about - even with words that the model has never encountered before.

The model is based on the way nouns are associated in the brain with verbs such as see, hear, listen and taste. The research will inevitably raise fears that scientists could soon be able to read a person's mind without them realising.

Clipped from: nsf.gov - National Science Foundation (NSF) News - A Computer That Can 'Read' Your Mind - US National Science Foundation (NSF)

A Computer That Can 'Read' Your Mind

Research team's work with brain scans and computational modeling an important breakthrough in understanding the brain and developing new computational tools

Predicted fMRI images for "celery" and "airplane" show significant similarities with the observed images for each word. Red indicates areas of high activity, blue indicates low activity.

Clipped from: How Technology May Soon "Read" Your Mind, 60 Minutes: Incredible Research Lets Scientists Get A Glimpse At Your Thoughts - CBS News

CBS News

How Technology May Soon "Read" Your Mind

The technology that is transforming what once was science fiction into just plain science is a specialized use of MRI scanning called "functional MRI," fMRI for short. It makes it possible to see what's going on inside the brain while people are thinking.

"You know, every time I walk into that scanner room and I see the person's brain appear on the screen, when I see those patterns, it is just incredible, unthinkable," neuroscientist Marcel Just told Stahl.

He calls it "thought identification."

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Clipped from: May 29: Computer Model Reveals How Brain Represents Meaning - Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon Computer Model
Reveals How Brain Represents Meaning

Predicts Brain Activation Patterns for Thousands of Concrete Nouns

The team, led by computer scientist Tom M. Mitchell and cognitive neuroscientist Marcel Just, constructed the computational model by using fMRI activation patterns for 60 concrete nouns and by statistically analyzing a set of texts totaling more than a trillion words, called a text corpus. The computer model combines this information about how words are used in text to predict the activation patterns for thousands of concrete nouns contained in the text corpus with accuracies significantly greater than chance.

Related:
Scientists move a step closer to mind-reading | Science | guardian.co.uk
nsf.gov - National Science Foundation (NSF) News - A Computer That Can 'Read' Your Mind - US National Science Foundation (NSF)
How Technology May Soon "Read" Your Mind, 60 Minutes: Incredible Research Lets Scientists Get A Glimpse At Your Thoughts - CBS News
May 29: Computer Model Reveals How Brain Represents Meaning - Carnegie Mellon University
Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging
Machine Learning Department - Carnegie Mellon University

Mind Reading Software

clipped from www.cns.atr.jp

clipped from www.medgadget.com fMRI Extracts Images From The Brain Researchers from ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Japan used a functional MRI machine on the brain to read the letters and symbols that the eyes of a subject were seeing. clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk Scientists develop software that can map dreams clipped from www.newscientist.com 'Mind-reading' software could record your dreams Brain scanning can now extract information directly from the brain: the subject read the word "neuron" at the top, and software working with the brain scan images reconstructed the word (below) (Image: Neuron/Cell Press) clipped from www.cns.atr.jp

Cognitive Modules in the Cerebellum

Forward Thinking, MOSAIC Model and Mirror Neurons

Motor Control and Learning

Vision Dynamics

Decoding Neural Signals

Associate Professor

Yukiyasu Kamitani

We develop the decoding techniques reading the states of mind by non-invasive brain imaging, fMRI or MEG. Especially, we aim to reveal subjective perceptual and cognitive contents.

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Jazz Improvisation and the Brain

A recent fMRI study of the brain activity of improvising jazz musician shows remarkable changes in brain activity during this creative proces: a brain region responsible for self-monitoring is shut down and an area responsible for self-expression is switched on.

A remarkable state of the mind

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Clipped from: THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON JAZZ: RESEARCHERS USE MRI TO STUDY SPONTANEITY, CREATIVITY

“When jazz musicians improvise, they often play with eyes closed in a distinctive, personal style that transcends traditional rules of melody and rhythm,” says Charles J. Limb, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a trained jazz saxophonist himself. “It’s a remarkable frame of mind,” he adds, “during which, all of a sudden, the musician is generating music that has never been heard, thought, practiced or played before. What comes out is completely spontaneous.”

Though many recent studies have focused on understanding what parts of a person’s brain are active when listening to music, Limb says few have delved into brain activity while music is being spontaneously composed.

Dr. Charles Limb, a Johns Hopkins surgeon, has completed a study of brain function changes when musicians improvise. (Sun photo by Andre F. Chung / June 26, 2008)

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Clipped from: YouTube - Your Brain On Jazz

fMRI study

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Clipped from: This is your brain on Jazz..... - Biophysics - Zimbio



Each musician first took part in four different exercises designed to separate out the brain activity involved in playing simple memorized piano pieces and activity while improvising their music.

Results

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Clipped from: This is your brain on Jazz..... - Biophysics - Zimbio

The scientists found that a region of the brain known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a broad portion of the front of the brain that extends to the sides, showed a slowdown in activity during improvisation. This area has been linked to planned actions and self-censoring, such as carefully deciding what words you might say at a job interview. Shutting down this area could lead to lowered inhibitions, Limb suggests.

The researchers also saw increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, which sits in the center of the brain’s frontal lobe. This area has been linked with self-expression and activities that convey individuality, such as telling a story about yourself.

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Clipped from: PLoS ONE : Publishing science, accelerating research

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Clipped from: THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON JAZZ: RESEARCHERS USE MRI TO STUDY SPONTANEITY, CREATIVITY

“Jazz is often described as being an extremely individualistic art form. You can figure out which jazz musician is playing because one person’s improvisation sounds only like him or her,” says Limb. “What we think is happening is when you’re telling your own musical story, you’re shutting down impulses that might impede the flow of novel ideas.”

Limb notes that this type of brain activity may also be present during other types of improvisational behavior that are integral parts of life for artists and non-artists alike. For example, he notes, people are continually improvising words in conversations and improvising solutions to problems on the spot. “Without this type of creativity, humans wouldn’t have advanced as a species. It’s an integral part of who we are,” Limb says.

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Men And Women Respond Differently To Stress

The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine is reporting research that shows that different parts of the brain are activated in males and females when confronted with a stressful situation. The researchers examined the activity of participant's brains using fMRI while exposed to stress.

clipped from whyfiles.org You may not know it, but your levels of stress hormones are probably rising. Ditto for your heart rate. In animals, stress can stunt growth, slow learning, or fluster the immune system. In people, chronic stress can cause high blood pressure, among other problems. Test subjects were asked about their state of stress and anxiety between MRI scans. While stress and anxiety showed similar trends, stress was even higher after the hard math task. clipped from alevelpsychology.co.uk Stress Response is Gender Specific clipped from www.sciencedaily.com Men Are From Mars Neuroscientists Find That Men And Women Respond Differently To Stress April 1, 2008 — Functional magnetic resonance imaging of men and women under stress showed neuroscientists how their brains differed in response to stressful situations. In men, increased blood flow to the left orbitofrontal cortex suggested activation of the "fight or flight" response. In women, stress activated the limbic system, which is associated with emotional responses.

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Brain Scans Reveal Brain Mysteries

Recent fMRI studies have enabled scientists to expand the intricate cartography that represents the mind at work, revealing not only everything from when you tell a lie, to how you fall in love, but even that your brain makes decisions long before you knew about it.

clipped from www.tomorrowstrends.com Your brain may trigger your decisions before you make them These experiments show that the brain makes decisions prior to you being aware you made a decision. This is something to mull over a while, and is a little unsettling. Basically, this could indicate that the concept that your behavior is based on your active decision-making is in incorrect. Your brain may decide your behavior, and your active decision-making is an illusion of your brain. clipped from www.wired.com "Your decisions are strongly prepared by brain activity. By the time consciousness kicks in, most of the work has already been done," said study co-author John-Dylan Haynes, a Max Planck Institute neuroscientist. clipped from www.mpg.de Revealing Secret Intentions in the Brain Scientists decode concealed intentions from human brain activity clipped from www.eeg.com clipped from www.popularmechanics.com The colors indicate key parts of the brain activated by stimuli in five fMRI studies. The illustration shows activity in one hemisphere of the brain; most neural responses occur in both hemispheres.

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